Literary Blunders
A Chapter in the History of Human Error

A collection of comical errors, as funny a record of human folly as when it was first published in 1893.

Henry Benjamin Wheatley (Author)

9781108051996, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 August 2012

244 pages, 10 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

Delight in other people's errors never dates, and this little book, first published in 1893, is a fount of human folly and a joy to read. Its compiler, Henry Benjamin Wheatley (1838–1917), was a distinguished librarian, bibliographer and scholar, and a prolific author on London history and the history of books. This publication displays his great sense of humour, and his effortless command of far-flung sources in the search for a good joke. Citing examples from historians to misguided schoolboys, as well as from everyday conversation, Wheatley looks at comic misprints, misunderstandings, and garbled English in foreign parts. However, the book also has a more serious contribution to make: the chapter on printed errata makes use of the earliest evidence of proof correction by authors, and the analysis of misprints in early printing shows how many variant readings in the works of Shakespeare came about.

Preface
1. Blunders in general
2. Blunders of authors
3. Blunders of translators
4. Bibliographical blunders
5. Lists of errata
6. Misprints
7. Schoolboys' blunders
8. Foreigners' English
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]